Chicken Paillard with Fresh Fig Salad and Blue Cheese

Pounding chicken breasts into paillards, thin slices, is a great way to use chicken for salad. It cooks fast and evenly so the meat stays nice and moist. The salty-sweet combination of figs, pancetta, and blue cheese is dynamite.

April 8th, 2012

Servings

4

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

45 minutes

Ingredients

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1-1/2 lb)

1/2 pounds pancetta

Extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 pounds blue cheese, crumbled

1 bunch arugula, trimmed

1 small basket fresh figs, halved

Tarragon leaves, for garnish

Chicken Paillard with Fresh Fig Salad and Blue Cheese Dressing

Ingredients

3 tablespoons honey

1/4 Cups extra-virgin olive oil

1 shallot, chopped

1 tablespoon sherry vinegar

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon

Directions

Whisk together all ingredients for vinaigrette in a small bowl and set aside.

Sandwich chicken breasts between 2 layers of plastic wrap and pound them very thin with a meat cleaver or rolling pin.

Remove chicken breasts from plastic and season well on both sides with salt and pepper.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Unroll pancetta so it looks like big strips of bacon. Add it to pan and fry until fat is rendered, 3 to 4 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

Drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil into pan with pancetta drippings. Add chicken and pan-fry for 3 to 4 minutes on each side to brown breasts and cook them through. Use a spatula to remove chicken to paper towels with pancetta.

Add vinaigrette to sauté pan and heat for a few minutes, stirring to lift bits of pancetta and chicken from bottom of pan; take pan off heat.